How can believers be in the world, but not of the world?

The seventh "I have," is found in verse 18. As the holy and perfect One, Jesus had been sent into the world by the Father, that He might represent Him and make Him known. Now He sends His disciples into the world in similar manner. They were to represent Him and make Him known. What qualified them for this was the sanctification of which the previous verse had spoken. Had it been His plan to place them in monastic isolation, no such mission would have been possible, and it would not have been possible had they not been sanctified by the truth. But with the spiritual immunity which the truth confers it was possible.

Here are a few humble folk, who love Him, and He loves them. They are going to be left without Him in the world, and the next thing is what we get in verse 14: "I have given them Thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." We are left in the world on the distinct understanding that we are not of it. We are not part of the world-system by which we are surrounded, and for that reason the world hates the Christian. Notice the Lord here makes Himself the standard. We are identified with Him in this.

Now notice a further thing in verse 18: "As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." We have been taken out of the great world-system. We speak of a man being a "man of the world." By this we do not intend to emphasise the fact that he lives on this planet in contrast to dwelling in the moon, or being an inhabitant of Mars. We mean that he is absolutely and in every sense a man of the world-system that is all around us, so that he bears its stamp and impress. The Christian is taken out of the world in that sense. Notice here again that He, Christ Himself, is the standard. If it is a question of our separation from the world, it is even as Christ Himself is separated from it; if it is a question of being sent into the world, as in verse 18, that also is measured by the same standard. The Lord takes us out, breaks our links with this world, and then sends us back that we may be here for Him.

He gave them the word of His Father — not the words to bring them into communion with Him, but His word — the testimony of what He was. And the world had hated them as it had hated Jesus (the living and personal testimony of the Father) and the Father Himself. Being thus in relationship with the Father, who had taken them out from the men of the world, and having received the Father's word (and eternal life in the Son in that knowledge), they were not of the world even as Jesus was not of the world: and therefor the world hated them. Nevertheless the Lord does not pray that they might be taken out of it; but that the Father should keep them from the evil. He enters into the detail of His desires in this respect, grounded on their not being of the world. He repeats this thought as the basis of their position here below. "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." What then were they to be? By what rule, by what model, were they to be formed? By the truth, and the Father's word is truth. Christ was always the Word, but the living Word among men. In the scriptures we possess it, written and stedfast: they reveal Him, bear witness to Him. It was thus that the disciples were to be set apart. "Sanctify them by thy truth: thy word is the truth." It was this, personally, that they were to be formed by, the Father's word, as He was revealed in Jesus.

And now He puts them in His own place, not with the Father, but in respect of the world; "I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them." It is in the same place of testimony that He had been in. They are in the same place as Himself with the Father to the end of verse 13; and then He begins to put them in the same place as to the world, and He prays, "not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." There I learn that He has made their place that which His was, giving them His testimony, the Father's word, not words here, and the world will not bear it; if you get into this place the world will not stand it. The world will bear a deal of religion, but not the Father. The Father dwells with the Christian; you are all outside, if you belong to the world and not to the Father. The Father has taken His Son up to Himself out of the world; and the Son says, "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me." "I have manifested thy name" and the effect is that I am rejected. The world has not known the Father, but the Father takes up the Son to His right hand, and the world is all left behind; but Christians are put in His place before the Father and before the world.

What joy must have been brought to the heart of Jesus when His own received the Father's word from Him (John 17:14); a word which formed them after Christ, and drew upon them, as it had drawn upon the Son, the hatred of the world. It was the reception of the Father's word in their hearts that separated them from the world, and this the world could not abide. The more the Father's word has its place in our hearts the more shall we be apart practically from the world and its ways. The Lord goes on to speak of this where, in John 17:17, He says to the Father, "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth." It is the desire of the Father and the Son to have us set apart for themselves in our sojourn through this world; and for this we need to be feeding upon the Father's word in communion with Him.

Thus it is that believers are equipped for their mission. As the Father had sent the Son into the world to be a witness to the Father, so Christ sends believers into the world as a witness to Himself.

In the course of the prayer the Lord speaks of believers as taken "out of the world" in which they once lived (6); as left "in the world" for the glory of Christ (11); as "not of the world" morally (14, 16); and as sent "into the world" as witnesses (18). Good indeed for believers to seize the spirit of this prayer and, realising that they are "not of the world," not only to keep apart from its evil but also to walk wholly apart from its political schemes, its social round and its religious activities.

We are left in this world by Christ Himself, but we are not of it, our home is above (John 17:11). We are left here to be a witness for Christ. We have to live in the world while we bear witness for Christ and wait for His coming for us; but we are not to settle down here as though this were our rest, nor associate ourselves with that which leaves Him out. We are not to look for joy and satisfaction in the passing things of time and sense, but must find all our springs in Christ as we live in daily fellowship with Him if we are to be truly happy.

First of all as to our relation to men generally. Though converted, we are left for a longer or shorter period in this world, very often amid the same surroundings as in our unconverted days. In any case, we are constantly rubbing shoulder to shoulder with men who have their portion in this life. How are we to behave to such? The Word of God gives us a general principle to guide our conduct. "Esteem all men," it says. Naturally we are prone to go to one of two extremes, just according to our bent. Either we sink too much to the level of other men, or we are apt to 'assume an air of superiority, and act the Pharisee. Scripture points out a middle course, which, if adopted, would prove both a safeguard to ourselves, and a help to those who are at present outside. All earnest Christians, who desire to follow the Lord fully, have doubtless felt a difficulty as to their precise attitude towards worldly friends and neighbours. It is easy enough to treat people with cold indifference, to avoid them, or pass them by with only the slightest recognition. In doing so we can never hope to win them for Christ, nor do we give them an opportunity of seeing what Christianity has done for us. On the other hand, it is equally easy to form worldly acquaintanceship and fall under its influence, rather than, as the children of God, shining as lights in the world. But if we seek to carry into practice the injunction to "esteem all," we shall neither be looking down upon people, nor yet defiling our garments, but we shall be letting our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven.

Again, it is indeed most important to be separate from evil, but what is true separation from evil? It is emphatically not the separation of the monk and the nun. True separation from evil is Christ-likeness which moves about amongst our fellowmen, but is altogether of a different spirit from that of this world, with other motives, desires and ambitions. Thus it is written, "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen," but what about our brother who lives in our street, our neighbourhood, and whom we have often seen, but we have never done anything to show our love to him? Will it do at the judgment-seat to say, he was not "of us," and therefore we were justified in ignoring him. We are bound to shew love to him, how have we done it? Truly we have reason to be humbled to the dust, for we have not neighboured our brother, and if our excuse is, "Oh, he is all wrong," this will only make our own case worse, for the need was all the greater. "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn to death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth he not know it? and shall he not render to every man according to his works? (Prov. 24:11-12.)

Its sanction and maintenance of all earthly relations, according to God, were other reasons for the acceptance of the gospel among the heathen. Each one was exhorted to remain in these relationships, and seek to glorify God therein. The blessings of Christianity to wives, children and servants, are unspeakable. Their love, happiness, and comfort were an astonishment to the heathen, and a new thing amongst them. Yet all was natural and orderly. A Christian, who is said to have lived about this time — the early part of the second century — thus describes his contemporaries: "The Christians are not separated from other men by earthly abode, by language, or by customs. They dwell nowhere in cities by themselves, they do not use a different language, or affect a singular mode of life. They dwell in the cities of the Greeks, and of the barbarians, each where his lot has been cast: and while they conform to the usages of the country, in respect to dress, food, and other things pertaining to the outward life, they yet show a peculiarity of conduct wonderful and striking to all. They obey the existing laws, and conquer the laws by their own living."*